


Sweet Creature

by eleasofia



Series: Lover Dearest (Arranged Marriage AU) [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (wtf there even is a real tag for that on ao3 omg), Aged-Up Character(s), Arranged Marriage, Established Relationship, Fluff, Growing Old Together, M/M, Nostalgia, Oikage Week, Oikawa Tooru's Knee Injury, Plans For The Future, Post-Canon, Retirement, takes place after the main story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 12:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10921710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleasofia/pseuds/eleasofia
Summary: "Believe it or not, even I'm getting older," Oikawa replied, but it didn't sound as cheerful as he had intended. There was a moment of tense silence between them until Iwaizumi broke it again. "Are you really just taking a break and returning for another season.. or are you retiring for good?"





	Sweet Creature

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of my Arranged Marriage AU and is an additional one-shot that takes place after the main story. It can be read without any prior knowledge of the story! Just keep in mind that they're happily married and both professional volleyball players :)
> 
> This was written for day three of the Oikage Week 2017 and the prompt was: "I want the fact that I existed to mean something." - Harry Chapin
> 
> The title was inspired by the song "Sweet Creature" by Harry Styles.

Being back to Miyagi always felt like the world stopped turning for a while. Of course, their apartment in Tokyo was their home, the place they always returned to after staying at different hotels all over the world, but Tokyo wasn't. This city never slept, and it would never beat the serenity of their hometown, not even after having lived there for more than ten years. 

Oikawa walked down the street he had used to live in just like he had done uncountable times as a child and a teen. It still took him exactly two minutes to get from his childhood home to Iwaizumi's house, and for a moment it felt like things hadn't changed at all. The door bell nameplate still read "Iwaizumi" although the family that was living here now wasn’t the exact same anymore.

Only seconds after he rang, the door was opened by a young woman. She was smiling brightly at him, and a little girl was clutching her leg. 

"Oikawa-san," she said cheerfully as she let him in, "It's been a while." 

"How often do I need to tell you that you're not supposed to call me that," he responded with a smirk. 

She blushed at that and averted her gaze shyly. "You know that I'll never get used to having celebrities in my home." 

"And you know that I'm not some stranger, but your husband's best friend," he replied with a laugh. 

She had always been a good and gentle girl, a loving wife, and a caring mother, and she excused herself way too politely for having to take care of her daughter, but let him know that Iwaizumi was sitting on the back porch and that she had prepared some tea for them. 

Once he had crossed the living room and opened the terrace door, he heard children's laughter and saw his friend sitting comfortably in a chair. 

"I see he picked up volleyball," Oikawa said while observing Iwaizumi's son play with a friend exactly where he himself had started his volleyball career several years ago. 

"He found the recordings of our high school games, and now he's obsessed with it," Iwaizumi replied without averting his gaze from the backyard, "And the moment he sees you, he'll jump at you and ask you for an autograph. And I promised him that you'd get him one from Kageyama too." 

He couldn't help but grin as he thought about how far he had made it by now, and the grin turned into a content smile when Iwaizumi got up from his chair and hugged him tightly. There were a lot of things to say and talk about, but the sentimental part of meeting again after a long time had never been Iwaizumi's strong suit, so he conveyed these feelings without a word. 

After lingering for a while longer, they both sat down, and Oikawa took a sip of his tea. "How's it been going for you?" 

"My life is absolutely ordinary and boring," Iwaizumi chuckled, "And I love it. What about yours?" 

"Exciting and exhausting, but I love it nevertheless," Oikawa said with a smile, "It's good to take a break though. I haven't been able to relax in ages." 

"I'm surprised to hear that. I never took you for the kind of guy to enjoy breaks." 

"Believe it or not, even I'm getting older," Oikawa replied, but it didn't sound as cheerful as he had intended. 

There was a moment of tense silence between them until Iwaizumi broke it again. "Are you really just taking a break and returning for another season.. or are you retiring for good?" 

Oikawa grimaced at the unpleasant question. "I have to retire from the national team, but I'll probably be able to go without surgery for one more year if the physical therapy is successful, but after that.." 

It was obvious that he had trailed off and wouldn't finish his sentence anymore, but Iwaizumi still gave him some time to dwell on his thoughts before responding. "And what do you plan on doing afterwards? I mean, it's not like you'll have to look for a job considering that you're basically set for life by now."

"That's true," Oikawa said thoughtfully, "But I'm only 35, and I still have at least half of my life ahead of me." 

Iwaizumi nodded. "What about Kageyama? What is he planning on doing after retirement?" 

"We haven't talked about it, and I doubt that he is thinking about that yet. He's not only younger than me, but also in a better physical condition," Oikawa replied bitterly and took another sip of his tea, "So he'll be training for the next Olympics while I'm wasting away at home." 

"I get that you're scared, but you're being highly dramatic. You're life isn't over," Iwaizumi replied earnestly. 

"All my life I have absolutely and completely devoted myself to this sport, and now that it'll be taken away from me in the foreseeable future, I don't know what to do. Just thinking about it makes me feel empty," Oikawa whispered while staring at his hands, "I've never been completely content with myself and my life, but it has been fulfilling, and I've been happy for quite a while." 

"Do you think you'll ever be able to be completely content? Do you think it's possible?"  

"I," Oikawa started his sentence but paused for a moment to think about it, "I don't know. But I already feel like I'm being forgotten. I want the fact that I existed to mean something, but in ten or twenty years' time, who is even going to remember me?"

"Your friends and family will. Your former teammates will, your juniors, your fans, your coaches. A lot of people will remember you," Iwaizumi tried to reassure him, "And that's going to sound tacky as hell, but even if you don't mean anything to the world, you definitely mean the world to Kageyama. You know he really loves you."

"I'm sure that a lot of them will forget about me, and even if they don't, at some point they'll all die, and together with them the memory of me will just vanish, and it'll be like I never even existed, and that goes for Tobio-chan too," Oikawa said bitterly, "A lot of people say that love is the most fulfilling thing in the world, but if that's the case, then why am I not content? Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could ever love anyone else more than I love him, but that doesn't make up for all the other things I'm missing in my life." 

"You're wrong," Iwaizumi stated, and Oikawa looked at him in surprise, "I'm pretty sure he isn't the one you're able to love the most." 

"What the hell are you trying to say?" Oikawa asked and furrowed his brow.

"I'm trying to say that I think I know the answer to all your questions," Iwaizumi replied with a laugh.

"That's not funny, Iwa-chan!" Oikawa protested, "Stop laughing!" 

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," his friend replied with a grin, "But it is funny how we're often unable to see the wood for the trees, don't you think? The solution has been staring you in the face, quite literally even." 

For a moment Oikawa just glared at him and waited for him to continue, but he didn't. All he did was point at the garden right in front of them, and Oikawa wasn't sure if he was being fooled or just too dense to comprehend.  

"What?!" he asked in annoyance after a while of looking back and forth between Iwaizumi and the direction he has been pointing at. 

"Children." 

"Children?!" 

"Yes, children," Iwaizumi started to explain, "You'll love your own children more than you will love your partner and even more than yourself and your own life. And your mere existence will mean the whole world to them, and they're absolutely never going to forget about you. You've been living your fast and exciting life up until now, and I'm sure that it was the right thing to do for you, but maybe you should try out being boring for once as well." 

"So you're suggesting I should become a stay-at-home mom while Tobio is still touring the world?" Oikawa asked incredulously. 

"I'm suggesting you should at least think about it." 

 

* * *

 

When they left Iwaizumi's place, it was still warm outside, but the sun was slowly setting, painting the sky yellow and pink. Kageyama had eventually joined them for dinner, and after an extensive autographing session as well as having eaten and talked for the whole evening, they were on their way to Tobio's old house. Their places weren't far away from each other, but when strolling leisurely, it was still going to take them around 20 minutes. 

"It's nice being back for a bit, don't you think?" Tobio asked just when they were passing their old middle school. 

A gentle summer breeze was rustling the leaves around them, and there was something extraordinarily peaceful about walking these streets as if they had all the time in the world. They were holding hands, and their arms were swaying a little back and forth while walking. No one else was around to bother them. 

"Yes, of course, it's where we grew up after all," Oikawa replied after a moment. 

"And where we met for the first time," Kageyama added and pointed at Kitagawa Daiichi's school building. 

"And where we got married," Oikawa continued and gave Tobio a warm smile. 

"And maybe even where we're going to spend the rest of our lives." 

"Do you want to move back here?" Oikawa asked in surprise. 

"Don't you want to?" Tobio answered the question with another question. 

"Uh-uh, not fair! I asked first!" Oikawa protested and came to a halt to properly look at the other. 

"Tokyo never particularly appealed to me, and it still doesn't. It's just not a place where I would want to raise my children, and a lot of our friends are still living close by," Kageyama explained. 

"Children?" 

The moment the word left Oikawa's lips, Kageyama's eyes widened in horror, and he tried to pull back immediately, but Oikawa firmly held him in place.  

"I'm sorry," Tobio said sheepishly and looked at his feet, "I didn't mean to say that. Just forget about it." 

"No!" Oikawa said softly but emphatically, "I'm just surprised because we have never talked about this before. I didn't know you were thinking about things like that." 

"Of course I am thinking about things like that. Why wouldn't I?" Tobio asked in confusion.  

"Because you still have some time left until your career is over, and you don't need to worry about what's going to happen afterwards just yet," Oikawa stated. 

"I'm not worrying," Kageyama responded and shook his head, "I'm looking forward to it. Even after I quit my professional career, I'll still be able to play for fun and maybe even become a coach. I'll finally have enough time to see all my friends, and with or without children, I already have a family to spend the rest of my life with." 

It wasn't like Oikawa had never thought about it like that before - he had mulled over these things quite frequently after all - but hearing it from Tobio suddenly made everything awfully simple. There really was a lot to look forward to, and finally actually realising that was truly comforting. 

He smiled wider than he had in a while, and laughed when Tobio was caught off guard by suddenly being hugged and kissed and stumbled a few steps backwards. They didn't fall, though. They never would as long as they were together. 

"The one who was worrying was you, wasn't it?" Tobio mumbled against the shell of Oikawa's ear after a while of holding him close in silence. 

Oikawa just chuckled softly. "The one who is worrying is always me, isn’t it?"

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading <3


End file.
